Dreams of a Wizard
by Laura Picken
Summary: This is a one-shot in the universe of my Fantasy AU "Four Winds". What would a newly minted wizard dream about after his first time saving the world? A thank you to the fan reviewers who've inspired me to get a little...obsessed...


Four Winds: Dreams of a Wizard  
A Castle Fantasy AU  
By Laura Picken

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the wonderful readers who enjoyed "Four Winds", set up story alerts, bookmarked it as a favorite story, and most of all left wonderful reviews! I am so thrilled that you have embraced the idea of our "fantastic five" and I am very much looking forward to continuing this journey with you.

Now down to business. This story is in the continuing series of Castle fan fiction based on my fantasy alternate universe story "Four Winds". Because this series is so very different from just about all Castle fan fiction out there, I promise you will be *lost* if you haven't read "Four Winds".

For very loose timeline purposes, Castle fans can place this somewhere in the post-"Always" future: Castle and Beckett are a firmly established couple, Beckett's back on the force and Ryan has fought his way out of the doghouse. Season five might make it into the canon of this series if I'm still writing it in September, but right now I make no promises.

DISCLAIMER: Castle, Beckett, et al. are property of Andrew W. Marlowe and ABC. The legends described herein are inventions of my own twisted imagination and should not be taken to reflect the traditions of any particular group. All non-English language phrases are courtesy of Google Translate, so please forgive me if I get anything unintentionally wrong.

NEXT STORY WARNING: For those who want to keep up with this series, I want to give you a heads up that the next story in this series will be a crossover with the old UPN series "The Sentinel". Anyone familiar with that show will know immediately why ;-). But because it's a crossover, it won't show up in the regular new stories list. So if you want to jump in right away with the next story, you might want to consider setting up an author alert.

Okay, enough business, let the adventure begin!

* * *

Rick and Kate were smiling as Castle turned to lock the door behind them. Those smiles vanished, however, as a third person's voice echoed through the otherwise empty loft.

"You've become quite a difficult woman to find, detective Beckett."

Kate tensed as the lights in the loft flickered to life. Castle noticed an increased tension in his girlfriend's demeanor - beyond even the adrenaline rush of an intruder. _She knows this guy..._"Kate? Who is it?"

Through gritted teeth, Kate whispered, "turn around slowly. And keep our shields handy." Castle followed his girlfriend's instructions...

...and found himself staring into the face of one of his beloved's worst enemies. The man who had beaten her. The man who had almost killed her. Twice. The man who seemed bound and determined, this night, to get rid of her once and for all.

This was going to be fun.

Castle felt the hum of energy surround him as he projected a shield around Beckett and a matching one around himself. Out of the corner of his eye, Castle saw the smile start to creep across his girlfriend's face to show her awareness of his protection.

Cole Maddox seemed annoyed that the couple in front of him were showing no fear, even though he was the only one holding a weapon. "Do you remember our last encounter, detective? Do you remember who was the one to walk away from that encounter?"

"I do," replied Kate, "but things have changed...considerably since then." She was stalking the room like a tigress sizing up her prey. Castle could have sworn she was almost purring...

"Really?" Maddox countered. The assassin turned his attention to Castle, crossing the room slowly to gauge Kate's reaction as he commented, "do you really think that the increased spotlight on you because you're sleeping with some mystery writer makes any difference to me? Perhaps it will make a difference if I kill him before I kill you." Maddox lifted his weapon, aimed it at Castle, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet deflected harmlessly off of Castle's shield to lodge itself in a kitchen cabinet. Surprised, Maddox fired again, with the same result. Beckett watched with a wicked grin of amusement as Maddox's confidence vanished, firing round after round at both of his targets only to have nothing come even close to hitting. Closing in on her target, Beckett took the now-empty weapon out of Maddox's stunned hands. "I told you things have changed," she commented. "But that's not the only thing that's changed..."

Castle hoisted himself up on the kitchen island and watched with a smile as his girlfriend proceeded to 'fight' with Maddox. The assassin tried valiantly to keep up, but Beckett's new gift for combat made the 'fight' feel more like watching a house cat batting around a mouse's corpse before he ate it. Castle decided to wait until Maddox's punches had degraded down to sweat-blinded swings of exhaustion before stepping in. "Kate, that's enough," Castle encouraged, "I have something in mind for our friend here."

Beckett turned to her boyfriend with a look of sheer disappointment...until she recognized the look on *his* face. Relenting, she took two steps away from her exhausted opponent-

-and winced as the unexpected blast of hot air hit her by surprise. When her eyes adjusted to the bright sun of her surroundings, the wicked smile returned. This was, indeed, perfect.

Castle's eyes never left Cole Maddox. "Do you have any idea where you are, Mr. Maddox?"

The disorientation of the instant change in surroundings let to sheer terror on the face of Cole Maddox as he realized just what his surroundings *were*. Maddox gasped out in a whisper barely audible to even Beckett, "Hawaii..."

"The lava fields of the big island, to be exact," Castle responded. Floating over to the other man, he leaned in for a conspiratorial whisper that he knew Beckett could easily hear. "I want *you* to feel the fear that *she* felt when she was hanging from that building by her fingertips." With a slight increase in volume, Castle then told him, "we're miles away from the tourist zone; right in the middle of an area with lots of active lava flows. *If* you can make it out of here alive, and *if* you can find your way back to the mainland with no ID, cash or credit cards, then I want you to give your employers a message: Back. Off. Leave me, Beckett, and everyone we care about *alone*. Or next time I won't be nearly so merciful."

"B-but you're here, too," Maddox stammered.

Castle grabbed the hand of his beloved and smiled. "But are we really?"

The couple disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving an exhausted and terrified Cole Maddox to the fate of the gods.

* * *

Richard Castle could not seem to stop smiling even as the first rays of sunlight hit his eyes. From a man that she knew was not a morning person, that smile was an unexpected pleasure for Kate Beckett to wake up to. "Rick?" Kate asked sleepily, "you're in a really good mood this morning."

"I am?" asked Castle.

Now Kate was starting to get suspicious. Castle was never this happy unless he was plotting something. Even first thing in the morning. "What are you up to, Castle?"

"Nothing!" replied Castle. When Kate was unconvinced, Castle insisted, "I promise! I just had a really, really good dream..."

* * *

**This was a quick one-shot thank you to all of you wonderful people whose reviews kept me inspired to keep writing "Four Winds" even when I thought no one but me wanted to read it anymore. And I absolutely need to give a special thank you to runeaglerun, TheButterflyCurse996, and someguyshere who left me multiple reviews *each*. Your enthusiasm for the legend of the Four Winds is a big part of the reason I finished that story so quickly. So this one was for you. Hope you guys like it! *g***


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